When talking about climate change, you might emphasize the economic benefits of climate action, our moral responsibility to future generations, the importance of regulations, the importance of individual actions…the list goes on. A wise choice of emphasis frame can resonate with people’s values and foster support for pro-climate policies. One promising but underused option is a public health frame—emphasizing that climate change is detrimental to public health and that climate action benefits public health.
A public health frame can generate positive reactions (Maibach et al., 2010), is more likely than a national security frame or a purely environmental frame to generate feelings of hope (Myers et al., 2012), and is more likely than an economic frame or a purely environmental frame to increase support for pro-climate policies (Dasandi et al., 2022). Emphasizing negative health impacts can increase people’s worry, perceived personal harm, and perceived importance of climate change (Kotcher et al., 2018).
Ultimately, you should pick a frame that connects with what your audience cares about. And the most important thing you can do to help tackle the climate crisis is to talk about it with friends and family, says climate scientist and communicator Katharine Hayhoe. Due in part to a reluctance to discuss climate change, Americans drastically underestimate the proportion of their peers who are worried about climate change and who already support various climate change mitigation policies (Sparkman et al., 2022).
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